Misiones province - Jesuit/Guarani ruins

..Then we caught yet another omni-bus, this time destined for San Ignacio, where we were to discover the very impressive ruins of one of the Jesuit missions that were built in this region from the 1600s... Our omnibus seats this time were up the top and right at the front so we had a pretty unique view of the journey:

We were met, as we disembarked in San Ignacio, by our very enthusiastic hostel owner, who kindly led us to his little truck, a noisy bomb of a thing with only one door that opens or closes properly. Hero and Dan rode in the back with the doors open for a view of the neighbourhood. Our hostel was a unique place, as it was only big enough for one family, and the people who ´ran´ it were all artesans, who worked in a kind of collective model across the road. We set off after settling in and saying hello to the other dwellers camping out the back - towards the ruins, just up road, truly the centre of the town... what we were hoping to see was a show that we´d heard lots of good things about which told the history of the mission and its ultimate ruin. It was on, as it is every night if there´s no rain, and we weren´t disappointed!!

They used projections in the most creative and integrated ways i´ve ever seen:

a ¨Narrator¨ first appeared projected (and therefore wrapped around) a tree trunk. He would reappear projected onto walls and pillars whenever he was needed. Otherwise, a most impressive thing was done with water sprayed upwards from.. sprinklers, I guess, so that there was a solid wall of spray, and then projections of life-size people were sent into the spray creating a holographic illusion of the images having 3 dimensional density!! so cool. This was used to play out scenes of Jesuit missionaries playing beautiful music on their harpsichords, violins and cellos (or violas?) as a small boy (who became a sort of mascot figure throughout the show, and was cheekily waving to us from a wall as we left too) approached them with interest and learned to blow a few notes on a recorder; then his tribespeople come and there are all sorts of interactions - all a film really, but shown to us in this holographic way under the very trees that it could be imagined these things took place. We were lead from spot to spot so that we eventually had had a full tour and experienced something of the ambience of several distinct spaces within the mission walls, including a domestic scene played out in the living quarters.

Probably the most vivid moment of ´spectacle´ was when they projected onto the now dilapidated facade of the church walls in full colour the walls as they would have looked in their full glory, with a parade of many people outside it, as if it was being inaugurated or such. Music and so on, really beautiful, like a time warp. Then, along diagonal sprays in different directions they had horses galloping towards them with riders in attack, lighting fires that then ´spread´ along the spray, moving so convincingly, it really felt like being invisible in the midst of the battle. The projected people running and dispersing if they could... until just a few were left among the smoky remains, (including the boy) checking the dead etc... then a ´wind´ appeared to come and blow the remaining away until there were just a few sparks like stars. It was magic.

Such a unique way of using and bringing to life the dormant stones, and a truly unique experience for all of us. Hero really liked the boy, and was waving back to him as we left.

Here, a large stone plaque now in a corner of the ´church´ with Latin initials and lots of moss that proves it is an old stone. quite pretty really.

The place covered a massive area

Here, the still-glorious entrance to the one-time church

stone work that you just don´t see anymore...

from ´inside´ the church with a pretty convincing cloudy day ceiling motif

Here the altar section where the choir, which apparently created a new style of music combining the classical styles and instruments brought from Italy and the distinct melodies and open voices of the indigenous Guarani... we heard some, recorded not sure when, it was truly lovely. (also, have you not seen The Mission? If not, get thee to a dvd store!)

stone door to a world of green overgrowth:

That´s a niice pillar

the determined tree below has somehow, over the hundreds of years since the mission ceased to be functional, managed to grow completely around a pillar like the one above. You could just see and touch the stacked stones within.

Hero, below, more impressed with dirt and gravel than with history...

In a tiny ´museum´ at the exit, we got to see some of the detailed stonework up close

Hero sleeps as we careen around (bus drivers are universally crazy it would seem)

very serious business:

It really was a fascinating part of history to learn more about, and especially to observe the truly special and inter-supportive relationship enjoyed and nurtured by these missionaries with the indigenous people; something which is pretty rarely the case when studying missionary histories... sad that it ended the way it did.

Video clips from Iguazu

Some short clips of the falls :

Iguazu 1 @ Yahoo! Video

Iguazu 2 @ Yahoo! Video

Iguazu - 3 @ Yahoo! Video

Misiones province - Iguazu falls

Iguazu Falls... yep, one of the natural wonders of the world.  But first, the trip to get there...

After our ten nights in a tent, we where quite happy to stay in a clean but very basic hotel in the neighbouring hick-town of Aristobulo del Valle.  Hot showers, an internet cafe and pizza went down well, but most memorable was an incredible tropical downpour that came in just before sunset.  The skies darkened as lightning and thunder abounded. Then the heavens opened and within minutes the drain along the main street was an overflowing river.  There was even a short hail storm which Hero couldn't quite understand, but was still pleased to be holding little balls of ice. After about 45 minutes, the skies suddenly lightened again, and then gradually the most peaceful dusk set in.

The next morning we set off at midday on the 'direct' bus to Puerto Iguazu, which promised to be a 6 hour trip, even though it was only about 300 km long.  Pretty soon we realised that this was because the bus picked anyone and everyone up as it chugged north through the heart of Misiones province. As it was a public holiday, smaller bus companies were not operating, so there were a lot of people wanting to travel.  It was amazing how many people were squeezed on that bus - luckily we had found ourselves seats near the back, so we were sitting comfortable.  The bus 'conductor' would weave his way to find newly arrived passengers and sell them tickets.  It turned out to be a good way to get a feel of rural life in this frontier area of rapidly receding forests.  Hero, of course, managed to sleep for almost half the trip... We managed to get her on a toilet during a stop over which was fortuitous as there wasn't one on the bus.  It was at a place called Eldorado, and coincidentally we bumped into Dr Juan from the weekend workshop in the bus station - he doesn't have TV and was there watching his favourite soccer team play.

On arriving in Puerto Iguazu, we walked a couple of blocks to our hostel and before long Hero and I were asleep, though Delia managed to find cable TV and so stayed up getting her fix until the early hours of the morning!  The next day after a leisurely breakfast, we bought some hats and food, and took the bus out to the Iguazu National Park to join hundreds of other tourists.  The Argentinian side of Iguazu falls boasts several kms of paths with some spectacular views of most parts of the falls (which are more than 1 km wide with over 2000 cubic metres of water going past each second).  We started off with the 'upper' circuit and as we got closer through the forest could hear a mighty roar.  The first view of the falls was quite moving...

Hero soon tired of looking at water, and was far more interested in the lizard population of the seating area where we stopped for our picnic lunch.

The Bump at 19 weeks!

After completing the Upper Circuit, we set off on the Lower circuit, which included passage over a "small" waterfall where Delia and Hero got happily soaked.

From the Lower circuit we also managed to get some views upstream to the 'Garganta del Diablo' which was almost completely masked in spray due to the high river flows at the time, and of some of the main falls near the Argentine side of the river.

There were boat rides up to the falls that we would have gone on, however, Delia was again thwarted because of being pregnant...

The park is over-run by possums called coatis who wander around scavenging what they can.  Initially they look kinda cute, but we soon tired of their antics.

We had dinner that night at a small italian take away that made very tasty gnocci.

For the second day at the falls we found out that the walk out to the main part of the falls, the 'Garganta del Diablo', was now open as the river levels had dropped slightly.  So we set off on the little train which seats about 200 people and wanders along at about 5 km/hr.  Where the train arrived, we joined other camera wielding tourists to marvel over a cloud of yellow butterflies who had found a salty patch of drying mud to fuss over.  After a long walk out over the mighty river Iguazu we arrived at the look out over the Garganta del Diablo.  Trully astounding!  The sheer power and majesty of tonnes and tonnes of water rushing over an abyss.  The Garganta had a perpetual plume of spray that blocked the views of the Brazilian side of the river.  This probably meant the views from the other side, which are normally the most spectacular weren't as clear - which made us feel a little bit better as we elected not to cross over the border into Brazil.

 

We spent the last of the afternoon wandering slowly along the Macoco trial, a less frequented walk in the park through some of the sub-tropical forests.  Much of the original forests that covered the area from Paraguay into southern Brazil is now gone, cut down for timber and in the path of agriculture.  The main information centre in the Iguazu park shows a telling satellite composite picture from 1996 where the main concentrations of forest were pretty much only located in Argentina's Misiones province.  These remnants are under threat.  It is not hard to foresee that within a few decades the only original forests will be limited the national parks.  Another sad story of humanity's insatiable greed for land and resources.